SEPT 26 UPDATE-- Contrary to reason, Chancellor Blank stare has decided to reopen again despite skyrocketing Chinavirus cases statewide. SOMEONE PLEASE SUE THAT PSYCHOPATH.
SEPT 19 UPDATE--The curve continues to steepen, with an alarming 2,500+ new Chinavirus cases on Friday. That blows the old record--set Thursday--out of the water. Former Gov. Tommy Thompson, always a douche and now the UW system president, played down the significance, yet a week or so ago, 1,000 new cases/day was a record. This good article summarizes the issues. The article notes that Big Ten football is starting soon--despite 42 UW-Madison players and coaches having tested positive so far. Wtf? Are there even enough players left to field a team..? I guess we need football to keep all the stupid people from going insane.
Chancellor Blank stare: Please withdraw the UW from football this fall and don't even think about resuming in-person classes. Or, get Covid-19 yourself and disappear so someone with more common sense can take over. Thank you, The Syndicate.
SEPT 4 UPDATE-- Well whaddya know? Just three days into the semester, 420 UW-Madison students have been quarantined: all members of nine fraternities and sororities, 38 of whom just tested positive. Do you think those frat boys are going to stay in their rooms for the next 14 days? Nope. By next week, all 420 will have the virus, along with every other fraternity and sorority--and hundreds of other students and staff. Bye-bye semester. "Our goal is to stop any further spread of the virus among our students and the community," said Jake Baggott, director of University Health Services. Stop any further spread..? Is Baggott a moron, or did he say that on orders from the chancellor? Containing the burgeoning epidemic on campus at this point is like trying to put two dozen live grasshoppers back into a jar after someone removes the lid. In theory it might be possible... but it ain't gonna happen. Now, there's nothing you can do but run. City officials must be beside themselves.
MADISON, AUG 30-- With the sailing season a total loss, fall classes are set to start this Wednesday despite the ongoing pandemic. What fun it will be! Everyone required to wear creepy face masks in class, and whenever you're inside any campus building. All food pre-wrapped, with the virus sealed inside for you! No football. What's the point of having in-person classes in such an environment? But that's UW's "Stupid Restart" plan.
More than 86% of professors and teaching assistants oppose Stupid Restart. Will professors have to wear a mask while teaching..? Some might if they're forced to teach in-person, yet the very idea is preposterous.
So picture yourself sitting in class for an hour at a time wearing a hot, itchy mask, the instructor's breath spraying on you, with everyone spaced out because the person next to you might be carrying a deadly disease. Do you think you'll be able to concentrate on chemistry or calculus or anything else like that? And will you even be safe..? Masks don't guarantee that the virus doesn't spread--they only reduce the chances. Frat parties and other off-campus socializing will go on without face masks regardless.
The fall semester is just underway at other universities and already there have been outbreaks forcing some to go entirely online, including at NC-Chapel Hill, Iowa State, and others. A major outbreak at UW-Madison is inevitable and will quickly force everything online anyway according to a UW prof. Contact tracing is a joke (propagated by people like Rebecca Blank stare), useless in the densely populated environment of UW.
This past Monday, a large group of public officials wrote a letter of concern to the chancellor begging her not to start in-person classes. Doing so will mean many thousands of students coming to campus daily to infect each other and thousands of staff members, many of them elderly and/or minorities and thus at greater risk from the virus. But why should we care?--we're young and at reduced risk!
I along with the other blog admins do not want to have to sit in class wearing a hot, uncomfortable mask, next to people who may be sick. Although the Chinese virus has a low fatality rate for young people (unless you're obese), it has many serious side effects that are only gradually becoming known. One is a tendency to cause hundreds of microclots in the organs of individuals who get the virus. Another is long-term headaches and fatigue that can be incapacitating. What other goodies await?
We would love to have classes, go to football games, party, and heck, even study at the library. But we would like even more not to catch the virus. Therefore, we echo the aldermen's plea to Chancellor Blank stare: SWITCH TO ONLINE INSTRUCTION NOW for all courses that can be taught online, which is practically everything. Even most lab courses can be taught online these days.
One reason the chancellor is so anxious for in-person classes is: she's old and doesn't know about things like Zoom, Skype, Google Hangouts, Facebook, or cell phone cameras and thus doesn't realize how easy videoconferencing (and teaching) is these days. Some professors probably don't know either. Another reason is: The UW wants the money.
Those are not good reasons.
Chancellor Blank stare: You will be personally responsible for each and every person who gets sick and dies here as a result of resuming in-person classes this fall.
Happy sailing (in 2021).
At least the UW had a plan, the stare is an even bigger mess. They should plan to keep classes online for the rest of the fall semester, and start worrying about spring now. the way things are going it might not be any better in January. I think contact tracing is worthwhile but hard to do here because everyone is in contact with everyone else. Lets just hope there is sailing by _next_ summer.
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